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One ethics expert, however, said the meeting still raises issues. No matter how careful Messina and Selib were to avoid conversation about Healthy Economy Now, their mere presence at what proved to be the coalition’s creation raises questions, said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that advocates for greater transparency and ethics in government.

“There’s no problem with sitting down at the table and talking,” said Allison. “But if they are signaling that they would really like these groups to support health care reform and trying to tell the groups how they’ll benefit from the plan, they’re laying a ‘quid’ on the table, and — even if they don’t discuss dollar amounts or advertising strategies — they’re suggesting what the ‘quo’ is, which is the groups’ support for the plan.”

The White House and committee officials said the meeting and the months of talks that followed it — between officials putting together the health care proposals and the stakeholders who would be affected by them — prove a willingness by the Obama administration and Baucus to engage groups traditionally considered adversaries of health care reform.

Ken Johnson, a senior vice president at PhRMA, called the April meeting “one of the key points where there was a coming together and a discussion of ideas and shared goals.”

Johnson said PhRMA, which ultimately provided the lion’s share of the $24 million to the two coalitions, “could have walked away at any time.”

Days after the meeting, Healthy Economy Now’s website address was registered, and meeting attendees began receiving unsolicited calls asking for cash for the coalition from Baldick, whose firm — Hilltop Public Solutions — had been hired to run Healthy Economy Now.

In addition to PhRMA and the American Medical Association, the strange-bedfellows coalition included AARP, the American Cancer Society, the Business Roundtable, the advocacy group Families USA and the Service Employees International Union, as well as trade groups for biotech and medical device firms.

Other attendees opted out. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and America’s Health Insurance Plans refused to participate in a group backing a plan that they would ultimately oppose — and the insurance group this week emerged as the most aggressive opponent to the bill Baucus shepherded through his committee.

Many participants in the meeting had a great deal at stake in health care legislation. At the time Healthy Economy Now launched the first of its ads May 12, PhRMA was negotiating with Baucus and the White House a complex deal in which drug makers would contribute $80 billion to lower costs in exchange for avoiding downward pressure on drug prices.

The Associated Press later revealed that PhRMA had agreed to spend a whopping $150 million pushing the health overhaul — a sum that included its contributions to Healthy Economy Now and Americans for Stable Quality Care.

Readers' Comments (1682)

This is why no one trusts this Administration. They say one thing and do just the opposite. All that high-flying campaign rhetoric about "transparency" and "lobbyists will NOT be in my administration" and "I will sit down and go line by line....blah, blah, blah..." Such unbelievable and blatant hypocrisy! The Democrats are, at the present time, behind closed doors putting all their little "pay-off's and perks" to their Union buddies, in a Trillion dollar Health Care "Reform" Bill that no one wants! At least the majority of the people in this country are dead set against it. Yes, we need real reform, but you can't have it without limiting the phony junk malpractice lawsuits against our doctor's! What Obama is trying to hammer out is just a Redistribution of Wealth and "Social Justice" boondoggle, at the taxpayers expense. Of course his own gold cadillac Health Plan will not be disturbed! Neither will those of the UNION members. This is corruption in action and will not be tolerated by the American people. Vote ALL these parasites OUT in 2010 and 2012!

This is why no one trusts this Administration. They say one thing and do just the opposite. All that high-flying campaign rhetoric about "transparency" and "lobbyists will NOT be in my administration" and "I will sit down and go line by line....blah, blah, blah..." Such unbelievable and blatant hypocrisy! The Democrats are, at the present time, behind closed doors putting all their little "pay-off's and perks" to their Union buddies, in a Trillion dollar Health Care "Reform" Bill that no one wants! At least the majority of the people in this country are dead set against it. Yes, we need real reform, but you can't have it without limiting the phony junk malpractice lawsuits against our doctor's! What Obama is trying to hammer out is just a Redistribution of Wealth and "Social Justice" boondoggle, at the taxpayers expense. Of course his own gold cadillac Health Plan will not be disturbed! Neither will those of the UNION members. This is corruption in action and will not be tolerated by the American people. Vote ALL these parasites OUT in 2010 and 2012!

This is why no one trusts this Administration. They say one thing and do just the opposite. All that high-flying campaign rhetoric about "transparency" and "lobbyists will NOT be in my administration" and "I will sit down and go line by line....blah, blah, blah..." Such unbelievable and blatant hypocrisy! The Democrats are, at the present time, behind closed doors putting all their little "pay-off's and perks" to their Union buddies, in a Trillion dollar Health Care "Reform" Bill that no one wants! At least the majority of the people in this country are dead set against it. Yes, we need real reform, but you can't have it without limiting the phony junk malpractice lawsuits against our doctor's! What Obama is trying to hammer out is just a Redistribution of Wealth and "Social Justice" boondoggle, at the taxpayers expense. Of course his own gold cadillac Health Plan will not be disturbed! Neither will those of the UNION members. This is corruption in action and will not be tolerated by the American people. Vote ALL these parasites OUT in 2010 and 2012!

This is why no one trusts this Administration. They say one thing and do just the opposite.

I wish more American saw thing this way because that is the truth. The hypocracy is staggering. The lies are worse. Obama said he would not take public money for his campaign, he said he would not have lobbyists in his administration, he said there would be transparency and on and on. When is America going to wake up and when will polititians start listening to us?

The administration brings the major players together, they explain their idea for reform and how it will benefit them, and they ask for their help selling it. What's the big deal? It was widely reported at the time that PhRMA, AMA, the big hospital associations, etc had all been negotiating with the government to support the legislation in exchange for considerations like not cutting Medicare reimbursement rates, etc. This is nothing like the so-called "grassroots" organizations created by Americans For Prosperity and FreedomWorks who refuse to disclose their financial backers.

Our country is Occupied by Lobbyists. The health industry lobbyists make sure the greedy health insurance executives continue to make obscene profits by preventing Americans from obtaining the health care they need. The banking/finance industry lobbyists make sure there are no meaningful regulations which might prevent their greedy executives from making even more obscene profits to be paid for by yet unborn taxpayers who must fund the bailouts. The Israel Lobby, in happy collaboration with the Military Industrial Complex Lobby, makes sure America wages never-ending wars against those Muslim nations who object to Israel's greedy illegal occupations.

Israel Lobby neocons are thus currently pushing for an escalation to our occupation of Afghanistan and an escalation of crippling sanctions against Iran, which they hope will lead to yet another war on behalf of Israel. The Israel Lobby-dominated Congress and the Israel Lobby-dominated media avoid the "O" word, so that in discussions of Palestinian resistance groups, for instance, such as Hamas, it is never mentioned that it is Israel's illegal occupation which is the violence motivator. We only hear about this from bin Laden who keeps telling us that this is why we have to fight al Qaeda to begin with.

Meanwhile our Secretary of State arrogantly lectures other countries: "In Moscow, Clinton Urges Russia to Open Its Political System" (The New York Times 10/15/09) Our political system is indeed open, ie open to entrenched occupation by lobbyists to the detriment of the American people. Other countries would be wise not to follow suit.

“What you’ve had was the Senate and the White House sitting down and cutting deals with special interests,” he said. “I don’t think that’s quite what the American people signed up for when the Obama campaign said that they were going to limit the influence of special interests in this White House.”

Of course his own gold cadillac Health Plan will not be disturbed! Neither will those of the UNION members. This is corruption in action and will not be tolerated by the American people. Vote ALL these parasites OUT in 2010 and 2012!

Our country is Occupied by Lobbyists. The health industry lobbyists make sure the greedy health insurance executives continue to make obscene profits by preventing Americans from obtaining the health care they nee

Why screw with our healthcare plan when 85% of the people are happy with what they have. Sure, we wish healthcare was cheaper just like everything else. I even heard Howard Dean say that 85% of the people are for a public option. That is a down right lie. I have never seen any poling company put out such a number. Democrats=lies, corruption, deceit

What a fking debacle - the poeple who run our government have come to us from Mars. These people Van Jones, and Dunn are for everything America does not stand for. Progressives need to go and we can help them out in 2010.

What a fking debacle - the poeple who run our government have come to us from Mars. These people Van Jones, and Dunn are for everything America does not stand for. Progressives need to go and we can help them out in 2010.

Again we're faced with 0bamas blatent marxist agenda in picking his czars. These are the things that drop his approval ratings lower and lower, with winter bills coming on and unemployment hovering around 10% he'll be lucky to be in the 40s by Christmas.

in 04 i had 5 teeth put in my mouth by a local dentist in a small town in western pa -this dirty sob made 4000 bucks profit(i figured it out) for about 8 hrs work-the sob should be in jail right now-what the he-- do these folks want-to pay for their edu in an afternoons work-they need drug from their homes to the nearest tree-when are we gonna stop these crumbs from ruining peoples lives